Saturday, 24 October 2009

3D Type tests

I’ve noticed a lot of my work tends to say ’shush’ instead of ‘shazam!’ So in a bid to interject a little more vibrance, where necessary, I’ve looked closer at graphic work around me that catches my eye and figured out what the major culprit is; light!

I say light and not ‘the third dimension’ or ‘depth’ because designers needn’t spend time in Photoshop drawing up 3D type when they could be more economical with their time and achieve the same goal by easier means. Namely, we can go into Illustrator or even inDesign and still manage to add a sense of depth to a piece of text.

I’ve taken a mental note of the various ways people are using a lighting effect of some sort, be it colour gradients or lens blurs, and tried each one to see the results. Knowing all this now, I’ll be able to employ these tricks more in my work.

This one below demonstrates two means. If you ignore the black you can see a colour gradient is used — although it won’t make a 3D look, it makes the text appear as though light is hitting it…like it’s affected by the surroundings (almost 3D). With the black midground hugging its edges and the white background, it employs a graffiti artist’s method in creating levels of depth (fore/mid/backgrounds).

This one doesn’t blend colours like a colour gradient, but just uses two solid colours. More economical in some ways and still gives the sense of light hitting it.

Having had a peak at Apple’s website, I noticed how much they use subtle effects on their type designs/buttons to lure us in with their shiny splendour! I’m still not sure which method is best exactly, but I’ve included my attempts below.

This one is simply white text on a background that uses a gradient. The text is given a very blurred outer glow.